It is generally known that hyperkalemia can be treated with various cation exchange polymers including polyfluoroacrylic acid (polyFAA) as disclosed in WO 2005/097081, WO 2010/022381, WO 2010/022382, and WO 2010/022383, each of which is incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.
In the previous methods of manufacturing these polymers, however, longer reaction times under atmospheric air were used. Such processes are not suited to commercial production due to increased costs and the presence of impurities. It has been found that when polymers are hydrolyzed in a bead form, it is difficult to completely hydrolyze the ester groups to acids groups because it is difficult to hydrolyze the ester groups on the inside of the bead.